Telling the Rest of the Story

Water, Water Everywhere…

“Water, water, everywhere,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink.”

When I read the Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, in high school, it made perfect sense for a sailor on the briny seas to be writing this line. Never did I think it would be appropriate for the people of Corpus Christi. Yet, here we are in the midst of a third water boil in the last 10 months, unable to drink the water from the tap yet surrounded by flood waters from recent rains. Maybe the citizens should just be issued LifeStraws; then we could simply walk out into our yards and drink from the ponds so many of us now own.

This little device has received accolades from all over the world. Hikers use them. Military use them. People in third-world countries use them. And for under $20, anyone who is without potable drinking water can use the LifeStraw. According to their website:

“The LifeStraw Mission is a gravity powered water purifier that uses an advanced ultra-filtration membrane with a 0.02 micron pore size, removing virtually all virus, bacteria, and protozoa. With our Follow the Liters program, for every LifeStraw product sold, a child in a developing country receives clean, safe drinking water for an entire school year. LifeStraw is ideal for hiking, backpacking, camping, travel, and emergency preparedness. The straw-style filter design lets you turn up to 1,000 liters of contaminated water into safe drinking water.

These handy dandy devices even come in family sizes! Maybe Mark Van Vleck can check into mailing these out with our water bills this month. Local schools would save a fortune on bottled water, and everyone could feel good about helping a child in a third-world country who is experiencing similar problems. Just a thought.

Retired from education after serving 30 years (twenty-eight as an English teacher and two years as a new-teacher mentor), Shirley enjoys her life with family and friends while serving her community, church, and school in Corpus Christi, Texas. She is the creator and managing editor of The Paper Trail, an online news/blog site that serves to offer new, in-depth, and insightful responses to the events of the day.